Pretoria – President Jacob Zuma has arrived in Luanda, Angola, for the 5th Ordinary Summit of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), which gets underway today.
Peace and stability in the Great Lakes Region will top the agenda, with an acute focus on the renewed conflict in Africa’s newest state South Sudan; the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic (CAR), as well as discussions on development issues in the region.
The meeting of the regional leaders -- which include incoming chair Angola, Burundi, CAR, Congo, DRC, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia -- precedes the African Union summit to be held in Addis Ababa next week.
South Africa has been leading peace efforts in the region and the continent, and remains committed to working with the United Nations (UN), AU, Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the ICGLR in addressing national reconciliation; post-conflict reconstruction and development; security sector reform; disarmament; demobilisation and re-integration; as well as institutional capacity-building and economic development in the region. – SAnews.gov.za
